In her book Where the Girls Are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media, Susan Douglas tackles the subject of female representation in the media. Advertisers have successfully turned many women into narcissists by dictating the characteristics that supposedly make up an ideal woman. Through an onslaught of products that promise beauty and happiness, the overall mentality of our culture has become predominantly materialistic. Therefore, in chapter "Narcissism as Liberation" Douglas utilizes scrutiny, empathy and sarcasm to persuade and enlighten her reader to the danger of narcissistic behavior that stems from manipulative advertising.
             Starting at the beginning of the selection, advertising is immediately introduced with Cybill Shephered's hair commercial yelling "I'm worth it" . One of Douglas' initial goals is to bring advertisers perfect, flawless displays under close examination. According to her, much of the narcissism we see today can be attributed to "Americas multibazillion-dollar cosmetic industry realizing that all those kids who once bought Clearasil and Stri-Dex were now getting something even worse than acne – wrinkles"1. With this information advertisers switched their focus from a wide variety of products to those which primarily dealt with appearance. It is on this premises that Douglas calls into question the authority advertisers have to make women feel as if the y must look a certain way. This inquiry cast a gray cloud of suspicion over advertising motives that once seemed so pure in female consumer's eyes. Women can't help but wonder what truly determines the beauty that is so covet!
             ed by everyone. Basically, "here's the question, girls. What if every woman in America woke up tomorrow and simply decided that she was happy with the way she looked?" . By appealing to women's desire to be self-content, Douglas is very persu...